The assailant was 24-year-old hikikomori Satoru Umeta (梅田悟). He has admitted his guilt. Umeta’s mother released a statement saying that she couldn’t find the words to apologize, and also that she had never seen any AKB48 goods around the house or heard Umeta talk about them. The day before the attack, Umeta left the house to go on a walk, and his mother was unable to contact him. She heard about the attack when a TV station contacted her.

There were five members in the handshake event tent Umeta entered. Kawei and Iriyama were the two closest to the entrance. Central members including Mayu Watanabe (渡辺麻友), Haruna Kojima (小嶋陽菜), Minami Takahashi (高橋みなみ), etc., were also in attendance, although in different tents.

An NMB48 high-five event planned for yesterday evening in Osaka was cancelled, and an SKE48 handshake event taking place in Nagoya was halted. SKE48 members were seen crying after hearing the news of the attack on the AKB48 members.

Hiroshi Yuasa (湯浅洋), manager of the AKB48 theater, commented that the security at these events must be reconsidered.

At an AKB48 handshake event in Iwate Prefecture, a man suddenly pulled a 50 cm. (~20 in.) saw out of his bag, and attacked some members in the handshake lane he was in. One male staff member was injured, as were AKB48 members Rina Kawaei (川栄李奈), 19 years old, and Anna Iriyama (入山杏奈), 18 years old. The severity of their injuries has not yet been announced, but responding police and fire officers said that all three victims were conscious. The 24-year-old assailant was promptly detained by the people around him, and was arrested on the charge of attempted murder.

According to NHK, staff were checking that the handshake event attendees did not have weapons in their hands, but the contents of people’s bags were not being examined. This is a major security failure that I sincerely hope is rectified by the next time one of these types of meet-and-greet events occurs.

As you can see in this video, at handshake events, attendees can shake hands with AKB48 members directly, with only a table between them. A staff member stands close by with a stopwatch making sure that fans move along after their allotted time is up and that they don’t try to get too close to the members, but there is sadly little preventing attacks like the one that happened today.

An 18-year-old man who has attended AKB48’s handshake events at least 10 times said he has seen occurrences like fans aggressively proposing marriage to their favorite members, and people screaming “You betrayed me!” at members in a loud voice at these types of events, but that male staff members immediately respond when these situations occur. One male fan commented, “It’s a shame that this attack happened, but considering what’s happened in the past, I’m not really surprised.”

We don’t know what the attacker’s motivation was, but this sort of thing could happen again, and considering the sheer number of people who attend these events, it’s almost amazing that it took this long for a physical attack on an AKB48 member to happen. It sounds like security for these events needs to be seriously stepped up to ensure the safety of AKB48 members and staff members.

Here is Kawaei performing “Hasute to Wasute” (ハステとワステ) as the center of BKA48 (starting at 2:50):

“‘The sight of a woman holding it excited me,’ he said, confirming the allegations. ‘I’ve done it 40 to 50 times since about two years ago.’ he testified.”

O_O

トイレに立ち寄るよう求めると、「我慢できないなら車の中でしていい」と介護用の吸水シートを渡していたという。

“When she asked him to stop at a bathroom, he said ‘If you can’t hold it, you can pee in the car,’ and handed her a urine absorbency sheet meant for use by caretakers.”

( ﾟдﾟ)

自宅などの捜索では、約１２０錠の利尿剤や、車載カメラで撮影した複数の女性の映像が見つかり、「録画を見て楽しんでいた」と供述したという。

“In a search of his house, about 120 diuretic pills and many videos of women recorded by an in-car camera were found. ‘I enjoyed watching the videos,’ he testified.”

😦

I try to avoid riding taxis, and whenever I have to ride in one, I try to memorize the driver’s name (it’s always on the dashboard) just in case something happens. I always felt kind of bad for being suspicious of the poor, usually older man driving me, but no more. From now on, I’m texting the driver’s name to my husband the second I get into a taxi.